we have to hug our kids are each other? planning a chat with a loved one or not a loved one? i bet to a lot of lists e changing for those that matter. wouldn't it be nice if the hug horse >> i'm melissa francis and here's what's "money" tonight. the speaker boehner's big offer. he officially agrees to raise taxes on millionaires. could a deal be in the works finally! our money power

panel with the latest information. rorts of massive food shortages in syria, evidence the assad regime is specifically targeting food to keep it from people. we'll talk to frmer nato ambassador about the kind of aid that they really need. and it could be the future of air travel. one airline now offering higher bundled ticket prices to stop the extra charges at check-in. just in time for your holiday travel too. we have all the details on that one. even when they say it's not it is always about money melissa: all right. first let's take a look at the day's market headlines. a nice start to the work on wall street with financials leading the way. the giants were buoyed by reports that washington may be closer to a deal wel get into just a moment. the dow closed the day up 100 points.

the empire state manufacturing index stayed negative for the fifth straight month the index which looks at manufacturing activity in the new york area fell to negative 8.1 in december from negative 5.2 in november november. morgan stanley slapped with $5 million fine for the handling of the facebook ipo a massachusetts regulator says the bank had dishonest and unethical practices. morgan stanley shares are up slightly. we start with the republican counteroffer in the fisca cliff negotiations. john boehner talking about a flurry of anticipation now that he he is willing to raise taxes on people more than million dollars. a huge tep. not a republicans are happy with it. those hikes must be balanced by cutting entitlement programs. he spent more time with president obama today to try to hammer out a deal. we have a money power panel toort this oneut. roger altman, former deputy treasury secretary under

esident bill clinton. die an further got roth. and steve hays is a senior righter at "the weekly standard" and fox news contributor. welcome to all of you. roger, you think this is the real deal? >> well, i think the chances for an agreement, a serious agreement, a major agreement are impositiving as we see these additional details. this taking the pattern, familiar pattern that one often sees in washington in terms of grudging progress. the two sides each laid out aggressive positions initially from the pointf view what they want and now 're seeing some hetating progress but pogress towards a middle ground. and it's a difficult thing. the politics of this are very hard. but i think the chances for an agreement are improving. i think there will be agreement and likely to be before the deadline but we don't know that yet. melissa: we don't know that. diana, still seems like

there a lot of distance in the middle between the two sides at this point? >> there really does and dana has gone very far in that tax increase,hat tax rate increase for millionaires. we all know that the problem in washington is spending. spending has risen to 25% of gdp. government spending. what weeed to do is get that spending down. it is very disappointing that we haven't seen anything from president obama o cutting spending. he says that $350 billion in health care spending cuts in the affordable care act but as we know from the doc fix that is likely to happen, the 27% physician cut reimbursement for medicare that congress rolls back year after yea, these cuts often don't happen. melissa: yee. >> we need serious entitlement reform as boehner proposed. raising eligibility age and changing indexing of benefits. melissa: without question. we're not even close to that. i mean, steve, when you look at these numbers and a lot of people think boehner has

gone a great distance today, we're still talking about $460 billion. that is 2.8% of the national debt. in other words almost nothing. >> right, exactly. i think that is the key context for all of these discussions. while i agree with roger i think we've moved closer to some kind of an agreement i would stop short of calling it a big agreement. this would be a small agreement. i think in the broader context, certainly of the debate. in the broader context of the kinds of entitlement reforms and spending reductions we need to see, this will most likely be sort of a patchwork deal with things slopped together at the last minute. i do think the week between christmas and new year's is likely to be key and it won't do much to change the trajectory, if anything, to change the trajectory of our country's debt. melissa: roger, where d you see the middle right now? where is the point of agreement? where do we end up? >> i think there will be about a $4 trillion agreement in terms of the amount of deficit reduction.

and we would have to spend time right here going through each of the elements there. melissa: right. >> it will be in two phases as everybody already acknledged. phase one will lock in certain spending reductions and certain revenue increases but there isn't time to legislate every detail of that. so there will be a second phase which completes the progress. it will be interesting to see what the enforcement mechanism is for the second phase. meliss feels like we could have right now. we'll agree on this. we'll raise taxes right away. we'll take care of hard work later on down the road and give tm the opportunity to weasel out of it down the road? >> i don't think so, melissa. i think from thedemocratic side they're going to want enforcement or a guaranty that the revenue increases happen. and from the republican side the same thing on spending side, on entitlement reform. i don't think you will see a bunch of promises to do things later because i don't thk either side wod buy into that. melissa: yeah. diana, what is the key to

that? holding onto the debt ceiling nugget as your chip down the roa >> possibly it is but the important thing to remember in order to get owl of this fiscal hole we're in we need revenue growth. we'll not get revenue growth with a lot of tax rate increases. that will choke off economic growth. we get far more revenue from increases in gdp and tax revenue from that at ccrrent rates than we do by increasing rates, whether it's millionaires or people making 250,000 more, which will choke off growth and substantially duce the incentiv to invest and to work. melissa: that ship has sailed. no ones talking about the growing the economy right now. >> boehner is. that's why boehner is sticking down, that's why boehner is refusing to increase taxes more than he already has because he doesn't want to tamp down on economic growth. he is talking about it. melissa: steve, what do you think about that? >> i don't think he is talking about it much. i think you're right most of this ship has sailed. this ship frankly sailed

during the campaign. remember mitt romney in the last presidential debate didn't make much of that argument. he instead spent most of his time tellin quote, unquote the rich they would not get an benefits from his tax plan. it was defensive case that mitt romney was making in the context of the presidential campaign. i think with the president having won the election, these are the kinds of things that i think it was likely he was going to pursue and republicans can't start making an argument now or they can i guess for purposes of framing the debate but it's a little late for them to be making those arguments now. melissa: hg on. give roger a shot. hang on diana. >> republicans won the house. melissa: go ahead, roger. >> keep one very basic thing in mind. "wall street journal"/nbc poll, all the polls taken on this subject and this is most recent one. polls show 68% of the respondents support the president's position on tax policy, on raising taxe on high earners. so it is not exactly

surprising we'll see that as part of the deal because that's what --. melissa: you know what is surprising about that state -- >> that is what the election was all about. melissa: only 2/3 of people want to see taxes raed but only affect 2% of people. there is whole bunch of people's whose taxes wouldn't go up and they don't support raising taxes on other people. they must think that is will stall the economy. >> that is creative way to look at it. >> that is numbers. >> election was held and people spoke. melissa: diana, go ahead. >> yes the president won the election. republicans won the house. tax bills start in the house. boehner in several speeches he made since the election he wants to raise revenues in economic growth. it is right there in his speeches, you can read it. he is making those points. that is why he is loathe to raise taxes on anybody from low income to upper income. melissa: we've got to go. great panel. thank you so much. thanks for all of you joining us. great discussions. switching gears with

great news on gas. the cost keeps going down. the price of regulaa is lowest it's been all year. it is $3.25. that's great! there is bad us into. we're paying more than ever before. the downward trend experts say will contue. we have oscarere to tell us why. welcome back to the show. >> thank you, melissa, for having me. melissa: so gas prices are the lowest that they have been all year. now day but we're still paying the most we'll ever pay this holiday season? explain that to me. >> well, as far as paying more at the pump you know one of the things we've been mired in is giving help to our economy, and that requires printing of u.s. dollars and lots of them as the fed has been doing. i thhnk one of the small reasons why you're paying more for gas today than you did last year at this time is basically because our dollar is buying us slightly less now than it did then. however, there is another side of this and we have a

technical p picture that absolutely shows us that gasoline is in a downward parallel channel and certainly would go lower as time passes and we're now looking at the 200-day moving average for the crude oil market which is getting below that. melissa: it is moving down, no question. >> absolutely. melissa: i have one reason for that. i was looking at stats, consumption is expected to be 8.73 million barrels a day. that is the lowest level since 2001. why do you think our gasoline consumption is so low right now? >> you know, there is a lot of conservationism going on. there are a lot of cars now that are not using nearly as much gas as they used to. melissa: no, that is not it. come on. >> there is lot of things that come together here. melissa: wait. economy is slow and prices are high. >> well, sure there is that. but you know, we are getting a huge supply of gas and crude and natural gas to this country that we've never seen before. we now, or at least i know

from reading the statistics we're online by 2017 to surpaas the middle east in providing crude oil. we will be producers of crude oil and natural gas. it appears we'll be the biggest producers of natural gas on the planet over the next 10 to now that is a reason why many, many companies are starting to gear for lower prices. on top of that --. melissa: that is absolutely true from a natural gas point of view but when you're talking about oil we ha to dell do a hell of a lot of shacking and focus on shale to get there. i'm not sure we have epa or environmentalists in our country supportive of that. >> of course that fight will continue but we are absolutely getting freer with our drilling and remember this. we jus found in the state of nevada the bigges oil find ever. they think it surpasses what is under the ground in saudi arabia. and then last year we found a huge deposit in the utah mountains. there is more oil looking at

coming out of this country than ever in our past. and then of course let's take it short term, right? we do have the charts telling us it will go lower. melissa: right. >> then you have this storm that trashed the whole eastern coast. there are so manyeople that are not going to beut christmas shopping. that aren't going to be driving on vation. that are literally repairing their homes and trying to put their lives back together. i toured the whole area a few days ago. it is still in devastation. there is that. there is not a lot of use of gasoline like there would have been across the eastern coast this time of year. melissa: that is depressing note to end on, oscar, we have to end it there. we're out of time. thanks for coming on. i appreciate your time. >> thank you so much. meliss hear is the question of the day. are you factorg the price of gas into your christmas shopping this year? we have mixed reaction so far. some folks saying yes, they're buying online. other folks telling me where to buy cheap gas. i love that that was great. we like to hear what you think. like us on facebook.co facebook.com/melissafrancisfox.

follow me on twitter, which is fun, i promise, at melissaafrancis. time for the day's fuel gauge report. a new oil rig for drilling near a major touririst resort as search for petroleum after three failed wells. the drilling will begin in the coming days and will take six months. oil giant bp sold its half interest ske in north sea gas field r $288 million. the mpany said letting go of its 50% stake in the sea gas field is part of a broader program to dispose of noncore assets. bp's share of production from this is about 18,000 barrels of oil per day. an energy company ys it is trying to figure t why a central pennsylvania nuclear power plant reactor shut down unexpectedly on sunday morning. ppl saidhe shutdown occurred during routine testing and the reactor is stave and sable.

the company said the other reactor is acting normally. next on "money", if you're getting paid $60 a day would you go out at night to blow over 100 bucks at a bar? no. no surprise that is basically what our government is doing but on a much bigger scale. details on a special fox news investigation coming up next. report that is the syrian government is making moves to starve their population. we'll talk to a former u.s. ambassador to nato with all the details. more "money" coming up. ♪ .

♪ . melissa: that's perfect. turning now to arguably the biggest problem our government is facing right now, complete and utter out of control overspending! there is just no way to sugar coat it. every day in the meant of november our government took in a little more than $5 billion in revenue but then we spent $11 billion in exchange, leaving us with a gaping hole of $6 billion a day. fox news's bret baier is reporting a fiveart series on this beginning tonight on "special report" and he is here to shed some

much-needed light on some really staggering statistics. bretthank you for coming back to the show. >> hey, melissa. melissa: this is areat report because, nobody is talking about this. we're not even close to the closing this enormous hole. what did you find in your reporting? >> it's pretty amazing, melissa. we talked to economists, we talked to politicians on both sides of the aisle, we talked to all kinds of people for this five-part series and we break it down to really simple math. we start out with as you started what the government brings in per day, $5 billion, in revenue. the government spends, the federal government spends 11 billion. the difference is $6 billion. you ask everyone how can the federal government continue to do that? well it's simple. it can't. now, we go through the breakthrough of what exactly the federal government is spending money on and the last bucket that the federal government spends it on, it is the smallest but perhaps the most ominous, $54 million a day on interest on

the debt. $854 million a day on just interest. we don't get anything more that. this is just interest on the $16 trillion, more than 16 troll trillion in debt. now that is with historically low as you know interest rates. if interest rates tick up at all, even the slightest bit, then all of the people we talk to say that these different sectors including the federal government, are rely going to have a hard time paying the bills. melissa: oh absolutely. >> go ahead. melissa: sorry to interrupt you but i always think about a household at this point. if you were taking in this much money every day and then spending that much more, and the interest on your credit cards were that high, you would go to sleep with worry. you would realize you were driving yourself into certain bankruptcy. when i say that to people, economists say, well it is not the same thing. do youbuy that? is that what people said to you? it's not a worry, don't worry? >> no. everybody we talked to, and

i'm talking die-hard democrats and, you know, every kind of political stripe. economists of all flavor said, listen, there is, it is simple math. it is unsustainable. the path that we are currently on is unsustainable. and no matter ur party, no matter your ideology, now there are different fixes and different ways and differ numbers, how much you bite off now and, what programs you take, and really tackle at the front end but, it's a huge, huge, issue to turn this federal government, if you look at it as an aircraft carrier, you have to start turning it now in order to getting it going in a different direction by the time, soon the numbers will be totally unsustainabl melissa: it is not even really possible to raise enough revenue to close that gap. i mean you can't, you can say the difference in between is five billion a day. if we're only, if they're only taking in 6 billion,

you can't basically double the nt of revenue that is coming in. you can't squeeze the stone that much. it is not possible, is it? >> right. let me ad this one quote. it is like your irresponsible brother-in-law runs up his credit card and goes bust and says the real problem because you stopped sending me checks. it is crazy and irresponsible. we've become kind of a debtor nation tt this mentality is, if we only squeeze more money out of people working, working honestly earning their living d solve this problem. that is arthur brooks at aei. he has a thought process about this from a taxes perspective but if you look at the spending, it is a massive, a massive problem. we'll lay it out in five parts all week on "special report". melissa: i can't wait to see it. it all comes back to the fiscal cliff talks as well. i've got to ask you because we're right at the source. i have the money meter. we'll force you to ppay along on scale of one to money, at do you think the odds we'll get a deal done

on the fiscal cliff? >> i'm going with two. melissa: oh, really? even after -- >> going with two. i'm going to caveat that two. melissa: okay. >> in that, i think that republicans may get to the point where theyust, you know, sign the tax deal. they do two bills. and they, they, move forward. john boehner could make a deal, but the trouble is, getting to 218 votes in his chamber in the house. i don't think he can get there. melissa: interesting. bret baier, we look forward to that report. thanks so much for sharing it. good stuff. >> sure. melissa: coming up tonight, coming up next on "money", shocking news that syrians are being starved by their own government. "money" gets to the bottom of what kind of aid will help the most there. alaskan fisheries weren't hit by superstorm sandy, i don't think so. there is still more than $100 million, earmarks for them and other affected states in the relief bill. i venture to say the people

of staten island, they might be able to put that money to better use. we're going to break down all the wasteful spending baked into the bill for you. do you ever have too much money or too much bret baier? no.

melissa: onto the middle east. war-ravaged syria is sounding an alarm over growing food shortages. bread essential to the diet. 70% ofheir bread needs are not being met president as said is assad deliberately targeting the fo chain targeting delivery vans, sending up food prices. we have the former ambassador to to robert hunter. welcome to the show, ambassador hunter. we appreciate your time here. >> good to be with you.

memelissa: i thought a lot of facts were disturbing and shocking not more so than anything else going on in syria. land is noteing farmed because of shell fire. there is lack of fertilizer. tanks have deliberately destroyed the irrigation canals and the army i stopping workers from getting to the lnd to farm it. so obviously this is extremely deliberate. >> yeah. this is a full-blown civil war being conducted by the government side by one of brutas we've seen in the middle east, you know, over the last 30 or 40 years. the father of the current president, for example, gassed an entire village and wiped them out about 35 years ago. so this individual who people thought might be different is showing that he is going to fight to try to preserve himself and his people no matter how many people get slaughtered. it is a tragedy of immense proportions.

melissa: it is very targeted. they're going after bakery delivery vans. of course there isn't enough money to deliver flour. they had a severe shortage of diesel fuel. and the list sort of goes on. what can we do about, is there something we can do about this specifically? i mean if we don't want to get involved in, you know, providing weapons, is there something we could do about the food situation? >> well, the world food programmein partilar has the capacity, and if they don't have enough money they could be given money. the united nations can provide, up to a point, a certain amount of protection for the people that go in. one of the most important things however is to take steps to show the assad regime they're not going to be aowed to continue this forever. the first thing i would do is go to nato and impose a no-fly zone, so at least their aircraft are taken out of the game. if one wants to go beyond that, to use nato aircraft

against syrian artillery. we know how to do that. we did it agnst the ser serbian-backed forces in bosnia almost twoecades ago. but we have to demonstrate to assad he can not keep th up. but, at the same time, it is poern to indicate to, important to indica to the minority, alawhite minority, a sector of shiaism, who is in charge. they will t be slaughtered but when, if assad goes. we have to be clear to countries close to us like qatar and saudi arabia, they can't just see this cynically as a way of getting rid of a shia regime and imposing brutality of islamic fundamentalism. melissa: sounds like what you're saying it is not as simple as the u.n. going in there to get food to hungry people. that will not solve the problem because he will devoid whatever food come into the country? >> if indeed the u.n. were

to pass a resolution, get people going in on the ground, with, let's call th peacekeepers, they wouldn't exactly be that, if he starts targeting them, then that becomes a further reason to take greater military action in order to get rid of this guy and get rid of his people. but you have to peel off a lot of the, the a la whites, a lot of people that have been running the country who are a minority but worrie about their own skins. you have to peel them away from the ruling class by indicating to them, showing to become victims in a post-civil war retribution. we haven't seen thought about that. melissa: we haven't even thought about that. ambassador hunter, thanks so much for coming on. >> thank you. >> up next there's a feast of pork baked into the president's $60.4 billion sandy relief bill. we have all the outrage just details coming up.

air travelers, listen up. ar you tired of paying all the high fees at the gate? well a brand new plan from american airlines might revolutionize the way you buy tickets. it is very interesting. "piles of money", more bags, coming up. ♪ .

♪ .

melissa: another week, another case of government gone wild. today the senate is hotly debating $60 billion relief bill for hurricane sandy. sounds good, right? but outraged critics say it is loaded with hundreds of millions of dollars with pork barrel projects totally unrelated to the storm. joining me, matt mayer, from th heritage foundation. welcome back to the show. what is th most egregious thing you saw in there. >> 150 million for fisheries out in alaska. melissa: in fairness it, was for alaska and other place as well but begs the question why in this bill would you be spending any money on fisheries in alaska when you have people in staten island that are still homeless? >> yeah. i mean that's part of the problem with the federal govement is, it always overreaches in these kinds of events adding lots of stuff on the christmas tree that really isn't needed. >> is it needed to get something done? i mean, you know, a lot of people say this is the

system. this is our system. it's not perfect but it's the best one out here and this is how it works. i see the department of justice inspector general gets a new car in this bill, i wonder was his car ruined in hurricane sandy or is this an add-on? >> this is the kind of behavior that has gotten us into t physical problems we face as a nation. let's spend money on stuff because we think we need it versus, do we really need it? fo that kind of spending issue the right place is in appropriations bill next year, not in a bill aimed to help victims right now deal with a real tragic even in connecticut, new york and new jersey. melissa: is there anything th can be done to the particular bill to strip it down? i don't want to stand in the way of helping people that are really rting but at the same time it would irk me to know end, $2 million to repair the smithsonian's roof in d.c., was it damaged

by hurricane sandy and that more important than helping people again whose whole lives have been deindividual? >> the way to deal with it, strip out spending targeted to federalssets and facility and focus on moye any that should go to victims, states, local governments in the impacted area. those are things we're talking about. transpourtation repairs, debris removal, aid to victims. that is the stuff we need to focus on not all the other stuff that can be put in a appropriations bill next year if the obama administtion thinks it is important engh. melissa: or not at all. a lot of this stuff shouldn't be done at all. where do you think the bill will go from here? will this thing get passed whether it irks us or not? >> i think they will strip some stuff out and debate a lot. they need to focus on debate 15 billion going to the categories i talk about. if they do that i think we get money into the hands of folks that need it to get this thing moving forward

rather than lard it up with a bunch of gratuitous spending. >> is there a law we could pass against lard? is there someone will run for office, my whole issue will be to stop this nonsense? is there any way to stop this? >> unfortunately party of one doesn't get much done in a place like washington. you need grassroots to rise up in this country. we've had enough. you're broke. you're spending money we don't have. get serious about this and knock off all the christmas tree type bill proaches. melissa: matt mayer, thanks for coming on and breaking it down for us. >> thanks for having me. melissa: nex on "money", it could be the answer to all your airline travel costs once and for all. one companythinks they have got it. we'll bring you the new details on the new flight plan next. at the end of the day it is all about money and carry-on luggage .so as you can see, geics customer satisfaction is at 97%.

mmmm tasty. and cut! very good. people are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. so we're taking you behind the scenes. this coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. it's not real. geico's customer satisfaction is quite real though. this computer-animated coffee tastes dreadful. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 % or more on car insurance. someone get me a latte will ya, please?

melissa: we have breaking news right now. let's go right to adam shapiro for that. >> we heard senator daniel inouye from hawaii has passed away. he would have been the longest serving senator in the united states if he lived just two more years. he passed away with his faly by his side. his last words were aloha.

recently he was asked by a reporter what he wanted to be remembered by and he said, quote, i represented the people of hawaii and this nation honestly and to the best of my ability. i think i did okay. daniel inouye, world war ii veteran, medal of honor resipient has passed away, the senator from hawaii is dead. melissa: our hearts go out to his family. thank you so much, adam. shifting gears now a lot of you watching are probably sick and tired, like i am, of all the extra charges and overall insanity what is happening with plane tickets. charges to check your bag outside at the count ir. charges to carry on yourag, that one kills me. another to get extra leg room. yet more if you have to change your flight. american airnes may set a new standard. different ticket price options for one lump sum you can pay all the extra fees up front and avoid the hassle. we have the executive director of brewste cal.

great to have you back on the show. what do you think of this plan? >> well, you know, the comedian lewis ck does a routine when we're flying, we all should be saying can you believe it, we're flying? the miracle of human flight. melissa: that is not how it goes. that is not how it goes. we all get nickelld and dime and furious. is it a marketing scheme or do you think, because that's your expertise? or do you think this is the new frontier and this is how it will go from this way forward? >> i think it will go from this way forward if it works. kudos to american airlines. my dad was in the air force. when i was a kid we had to dress up to fly. melissa: yeah. >> the romance of flight is over. the glamour is gone. america knows, let's give people what they want and some people hate being nickeled and dimed to death. pay for a drink. pay for to you carry your bags on. pay for you not to carry your bags on. pay to change your flight. you pay once. a lot of people will like

that. melissa: i had to break down the numbers to see what they were talking about. pay for the basic fare, that's that. you can add on 68 extra dollars. that gets you one checked bag and priority boarding at no additional charge bbt of course you paid $68 so there is an additional charge. >> of course. melissa: they wave the f if you change the flight. at $68, you get a to check a bag which is normally 50 bucks. basicaaly paying an era $18 to get on the plane first. what do you think abouthat? sounds like a deal. >> it's not but the big advantage there you get to change your flight. you're a business traveler. you change your flights all the time. it isnge the flight. way you did the math to take the risk of changing or not. that is prty good deal. i'll take that. melissa: okay. >> you pay a little more and get a free drink which might make you enjoy the flight better that would be a good deal. melissa: we have to break

that one down. 88 extra dollars, you get the all the other stuff plus a free drink. in my mind it is $20 for a drink. for $20 you get all the other stuff andget a drink. double the miles. i don't know. the miles expire. are they really that great? $20 drink. >> america is good with their miles. you get the miles. those who travel a lot, those mifls are wonderful. that gives you a lot of other benefits. thother thinghere is upgrade in the same day if you're an elite passenger. putting a lot of things that apply to different travelers, business travelers, consumers, family. different people want different things. but i agree with you, 20 bucks if are a drinis not a great deal. melissa: what would you go for? you're flying for the who day season? what will you do, pay the whole enchilada up front and pay the extra 88 bucks and have a drink and maybe tey give you a blanket too? >> i will go for the 88 bucks. i want 50% additional miles for frequent flyer for my next trip.

i want to guaranty when i change the flight it won't cost me money. drink, carrying bags is not a big thing for me. melissa: you're a dream customer. checked bags are for suckers. rry-on own way go. >> only two kinds of bags. carry-on and lost. melissa: you're fantastic. thanks for coming on. >> happy holidays to you, melissa. melissa: so the end of the world as we know it. why not eat one of these? we'll tell you which companies are hoping toe cash in on the rumored mayan apocalypse. spare change coming up next. you can never have toouch money or too many calories apparently. ♪ .

♪ melissa: all right. the best part of the show. its spare change. our very own elizabeth macdonald. >> already. melissa: i love it. first up, despite global financial uncertainty the imf is partying like it is 1999. the holiday pary had 7,000 guests and retirees werwelcome to attend. seven different stations with various cuisines. of course, obviously an open

bar. the estimate the cost to be around $350,000. re like half a million dollars for the im christmas party. >> oh, mike tetanus. melissa: they deserve it. they have worked hard this year already? >> i have my resignation. this is the place to work. ideally, more food. >> we do have more food. ideally to more caviar. this would make dominique strauss-kahn very proud, i think what i love about the imf, they are always telling countries to cut their spending or raise taxes, but now they're spending a lot of money. by the way, the u.s. supports the imf. melissa: yes. right. that menu looked delicious. obviously it is a half million dollar party. >> that's great. i would love that. melissa: i wnder why we were invited. i think it's because we are always maki fun.

>>ournalism and ordere the imf. melissa: you will work on no for next year. moving into the end of the world which some restaurants are prepping for by offering domesday deals. they have to get rid of the food, so you might as ell blowout. take a look at this deal by carl's jr. it is "money with melissa francis" by 12 by 12 burger. still pattis, 12 slices of cheese, and well strips of bacon. hosting the last friday party. and a hotel and long beach is having an end of the world party. are you going to split that with me? >> i like that cheese catastrophe. >> forget about it. melissa: how possibly -- could use machine down? you would have to nibble around the edge. >> that was like a two-story hamburger. alka-seltzer. really.

melissa: what do you think? how would you work on that? >> i would take it apart 1p said the time, but leaning tower of cholesterol. incredible. melissa: my theory is bacon makes everything better, but this is one case. next up, the new logo for the university of california. that is what they say it is. after a firestorm of criticism they are dropping the controversial new logo. that's it on the right of your screen. >> that's the new. melissa: on the left is the old one. the university will go back to using the century-old seal. many complain that large you around this the, you can even tell that was what was supposed to be made theuniversity look like a crass. [indiscernible] >> it looks like when graphics were first invented back and the 70's. they ran out of college for the sea. it is fading a little bit.

>> is just a logo. melissa: one of the war slugger's i ever seen. >> it looks like of money clip for a key chain. melissa: texas and california. i don't even see the you in there. they say it looks like a toilet. i didn't say that. anyway. good work, guys all righ. a florida woman arrives on to find that her driveway is missing. that's right. she came home in that dark. of the driveway just was and where it was when she left. police have arrested this man. the thief took the concrete pavers. >> even he is laughing. melissa: i can't believe i got busted. a witness saw two men a month, but, you knw, they did not think anything of it because there was of a construction and the woman's backyard.

>> eleven that the woman that well, he's working on the house. stealing a driveway. melissa: can you imagine? who would steal the driveway. that would never happen. >> so the getaway car was probably driving and 15 miles-per-hour. melissa: and a huge truck. >> is there a lotf money? melissa: that was my next question. what is an individual paving stones worth? be needed for the end of the world. i don't know. maybe he's building a bunker. law professors at the university of memphis best of their politics to have holiday party right in the middle of finals week . this is great. indicative of the faculty's disconnection from reality. in the middle of the